Tuesday, September 8, 2009

HATE LIST Author: Meet Jennifer Brown!!!

Okay, so now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s get down to business. Jennifer’s debut novel HATE LIST is a book I’ve been dying to tell you about (honestly, no pun intended)! As part of the Debs (and Tenners too), I’ve had the chance to read more than my share of extraordinary debut novels, the only limitation is that I have to wait my turn in line. Okay, so maybe patience is not one of my virtues. Fine, it’s definitely not one of them. And since I wasn’t fast enough signing up for HATE LIST that means I can either wait months for my turn to read it for free…or I buy it from Amazon. NOW. Let me just say: “Hello two-day shipping!”

Why the rush? Check it out:

Five months ago, Valerie Leftman’s boyfriend, Nick, opened fire on their school cafeteria. Shot trying to stop him, Valerie inadvertently saves the life of a classmate, but is implicated in the shootings because of the list she helped create. A list of people and things they hated. The list her boyfriend used to pick his targets.

Now, after a summer of seclusion, Val is forced to confront her guilt as she returns to school to complete her senior year. Haunted by the memory of the boyfriend she still loves and navigating rocky relationships with her family, former friends and the girl whose life she saved, Val must come to grips with the tragedy that took place and her role in it, in order to make amends and move on with her life.

And the reviews are coming in all over, and everyone seems to agree…Jennifer’s book is being hailed as brilliant. Even Kirkus (KIRKUS!) says: “this debut is one to top the charts.”

Seriously, just take a few moments to watch this (come on, it’s less than a minute and a half of your time, what can it hurt?). If this doesn’t convince you, I don’t know what will.

See? Doesn’t it look haunting and horrifying and genius? This one moves right to the top of my to-be-read pile.

So, now to the interview portion of our program. You guys know the drill, so I won’t waste time explaining.

Jennifer, here we go:

1) Would you rather be the Bestselling Rockstar Author or an Acclaimed Literary Award Winner?